Elizabeth Zarubina

Elizaveta Yulyevna Zarubina (; 1 January 1900 – 14 May 1987; Ester Yoelevna Rosentsveig (Эстер Иоэльевна Розенцвейг)) was a Soviet spy, holding the rank of podpolkovnik in the Ministry of State Security (Soviet Union). She was known as Elizabeth Zubilin while serving in the United States. Another alias was Elizaveta Gorskaya.

Early years

Born in Rzhavyntsi, in the Khotinsky Uyezd of the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) to Jewish parents, Yoel and Ita Rosentsveig. She studied history and philology at universities in Romania, France, and Austria, and spoke in English, French, German, Romanian, Russian and Yiddish.

Career Zarubina was one of the most successful agent recruiters , establishing her own illegal network of Jewish migrants from Poland, and recruiting one of Leó Szilárd's secretaries, who provided technical data. She was the wife of Soviet Intelligence Resident Vasily Zarubin. She was an active participant in the revolutionary movement in Bessarabia after World War I. In 1919, she became a member of the Komsomol of Bessarabia. She became part of the Soviet intelligence system in 1924.

In 1923, she joined the ranks of the Austrian Communist Party. From 1924 through 1925, she worked in the embassy and trade delegation of the USSR. From 1925 to 1928, she worked in the Vienna Rezidentura.

In 1929, Zarubina and Yakov Blumkin were posted as illegals in Turkey, where he sold Hasidic manuscripts from the Central Library in Moscow to support illegal operations in Turkey and the Middle East. Soviet intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov, who later organized Leon Trotsky's murder, writes in his autobiography that Blumkin gave part of the sale proceeds to Trotsky, who was then in exile in Turkey.

According to his account, Zarubina had an affair with Blumkin and that was the reason why he was recalled to Moscow and executed.

In April 1943, Zarubina met with Neumann, "(Zarubina) met for the first time with (Neumann) who promised to pass us all the data coming through his hands. According to (Neumann), he is getting many copies of reports from American ambassadors ... and has access to materials referring to Germany." Refn|Venona project file 28734, p. 28. and befriended him in order to achieve her goal.

In 1944, the NKVD agent Vassili Mironov accused the Zarubins of being in secret contact with the FBI.